If the NBA can’t pry loose the Clippers franchise from estranged owner Donald Sterling—despite the best efforts of the league to remove the team from his control—there will be consequences in terms of personnel, multiple player agents told Sporting News.

“You have to appreciate all that the NBA has done in this situation, what Adam Silver and the other owners are trying to do,” one prominent agent said, requesting anonymity because of possible future interactions with the team. “They came down hard on the guy, as they should have.

Doc Rivers, right (AP Photo)

"But I know I have players who just won’t go there now, not until Sterling is gone completely. If there is even a chance that you’re going to help that guy make even one dime, a lot of guys are not going to go play there. It is going to be something they will have to deal with when July comes around.”

July, of course, marks the start of free agency, and there is no telling what the Clippers will look like then. But one thing that has become increasingly clear—there is virtually no chance that the team will be entirely out of Sterling’s clutches by then.

Sterling was taped in a racist rant in which he requested that his girlfriend not be photographed with black people, and that she not bring black people to Clippers games.

In the wake of the release of that tape through the website TMZ back on May 3, commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the league for life, and the league’s other owners moved to force Sterling to sell the team, citing a provision in the league constitution that provides for that option if it is backed by three-quarters of the owners.

But Sterling has owned the Clippers since 1981, and considers the team an essential part of his identity. Those around him knew he would not sell the team without a legal fight—one that figures to be long and messy.

On Sunday, in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, Sterling’s wife, Shelly, said she wanted to keep control of the team and attempted to distance herself from her husband. The NBA later released a statement saying, essentially, that Shelly Sterling’s involvement with the team would be unacceptable.

Shortly thereafter, details of Sterling’s interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper were released, in which Sterling claimed he was sorry and that he was “baited” into making the taped comments. More important, according to CNN’s transcript, Sterling said, “Am I entitled to one mistake, am I after 35 years? I mean, I love my league, I love my partners. Am I entitled to one mistake? It’s a terrible mistake, and I’ll never do it again.”

That does not sound like a man ready to give up his ownership stake. If Sterling’s fellow owners decide not to forgive him this mistake, there could be a lengthy legal battle that follows.

That’s where things get dicey for the NBA—which appointed respected executive Dick Parsons as the Clippers’ interim CEO on Friday—and its players. It is unlikely that players under contract with the Clippers would have any recourse to break their deals, because technically, the Clippers are under control of the league at this time.

But free agents will have a choice.

“I don’t think the whole thing winds up with Sterling back in charge, that is just hard to imagine,” another agent told SN. “There’s the chance, though. There’s a chance you wind up working for Sterling. That’s the problem.

"And there is also a feeling like, ‘Hey, the league let this guy do his thing for 30 years and they’re only doing something about him now? Why would I go there?’”

Much of this depends on how Clippers coach Doc Rivers proceeds. With the Clippers embroiled in a tied Western Conference semifinal against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Rivers has tried to push the Sterling controversy to the side, and was noncommittal about what he’d do if Shelly Sterling took over the team.

Rivers was pleased with the reaction of Silver and the league to Sterling’s comments, and most sources around the league feel that even if the Sterling situation is not resolved legally this summer, Rivers will not leave the team.

He has been given full control of personnel decisions—significant power for a coach—and invested much in leading not only his players, but the entire front office of the Clippers, through this crisis. As long as the NBA is making the effort to rid itself of Sterling, Rivers figures to be satisfied.

That might soften some players toward the Clippers—Rivers can be a persuasive recruiter, and the Clippers will feature star point guard and union president Chris Paul.

But not all. “I can tell you that there are players who will cross them off the list before free agency even starts,” the first agent said. “This was really personal for some guys, and I mean guys who are not Clippers or never been Clippers. It’s just hard and not everyone is going to want to walk into that situation. The damage has been done.”